The Nembutsu: Answering the Two Challenges (continued)

To help us understand the meaning of the Nembutsu or Namo
Amida Butsu, Shinran Shonin first quotes from Zendo who
divides Namo Amida Butsu into Namo (Namu) and Amida
Butsu.

"Namu means ‘to take refuge.’ It further signifies
aspiring for birth and directing virtue. Amida-butsu
is the practice. Because of this import, one necessarily
attains birth."

From this foundation, Shinran Shonin defines the Buddha’ name
in the following way:

"From these passages we see that the word
Namu means to take refuge (kimyo), ki means to arrive at.
Further, it is used in compounds to mean to yield joyfully
to (kietsu) and to take shelter in (kisai). Myo means to
act, to invite, to command, to teach, path, message, to devise,
to summon. Thus, kimyo is the command of the Primal Vow calling
to and summoning us.

Aspiring for birth and directing virtue indicates
the mind of the Tathagata who, having already established
the Vow, gives sentient beings the practice necessary for
their birth.

The practice is the selected Primal Vow."

To
repeat the Nembutsu, Namo Amida Butsu,
is to take refuge in Amida Buddha.

Namo is the activity of the Buddha that commands
a response from us. It is an activity that causes us to feel
both joy and security and overcomes all the sorrow and insecurity
we create in our lives. It is the call of the Buddha to let
us know that we do not have to live a life of suffering and
sorrow.

Namo is the Buddha giving rise to vows and transferring
or sharing the virtues of a Buddha. In particular it is the
sharing of the Primal Vow. The Primal Vow of Amida Buddha,
the Buddha’s fundamental vow, can be described as the promise
of the Buddha to renounce Enlightenment itself unless all
sentient beings are born into his land and achieve the same
great awakening. In order to achieve this, Amida Buddha has
selected the Nembutsu from among the 84,000 paths available.
However, the Nembutsu is not the parroted repetition of the
Name Namo Amida Butsu. It is hearing the
command of the Primal Vow calling to and summoning us.

This point is emphasized in the passage where Shinran Shonin
tells us practice, or Amida-butsu, is the selected
Primal Vow. Practice, in other words, is the transformation
of Dharmakara, the Bodhisattva who is the Dharma Storehouse,
into Amida Buddha. Practice is the fulfillment of sharing the
Dharma completely with others. Amida Buddha, through the Primal
Vow, has promised that this sharing will be accomplished. It
is a vow that reveals the Buddha’s confidence in all of us
to hear and receive the heart of a Buddha.

To repeat the Nembutsu, Namo
Amida Butsu, is to take
refuge in Amida Buddha. We able to take refuge because we have
encountered the Vow. Through the Vow we are able to encounter
Sakyamuni Buddha and all those who have helped to preserve
and propagate the Nembutsu teaching, including Shinran Shonin.
This teaching was only able to reach Shinran Shonin because
of the Seven Masters from India, China, and Japan who transmitted
the Dharma. With this approach, we can realize that the Truth
we have encountered has transcended both time and space, just
for us. For the assurance that Shinran Shonin felt in his life,
the joy he felt in having encountered the Vow of the Buddha,
he concluded that even though there is no "substantial" proof
for his claims, how could all he had received be empty? In
joy, without any hesitation, Shinran Shonin was able to repeat Namo
Amdia Butsu as the path that the Buddha selected just
for him. It is the path that opened up the entire Dharma Storehouse,
and the path that revealed to him why the Buddha appeared in
our world. It was the path that became his path. It is a path
that can become our path. It is a path that reveals to us that
none of us have been born too late; we have all been born at
the right place, and at the right time.